Richard Trumka

Richard Trumka (24 July 1949-) was President of UMWA from 1982 to 1995, succeeding Sam Church and preceding Cecil Roberts; he was also President of the AFL-CIO from 2009, succeeding John Sweeney.

Biography
Richard Trumka was born in the Nemacolin, Pennsylvania, on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, on 24 July 1949 to a second-generation Polish-American father and coal miner and his Italian-American wife. Trumka became a miner in 1968 at the age of 19, and he graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1971, gaining his law degree from Villanova University in 1974. From 1974 to 1979, he worked as an attorney for the United Mine Workers, and he served as President of UMWA from 1982 to 1995. Trumka led a 1989 strike against the Pittston Coal Company and a 1993 strike against Peabody Coal, fighting for workers' rights. During the 1990s, he led a boycott of Royal Dutch Shell for its business with the apartheid-era South African government, and he received the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award for his activism against racism. In 2009, he was elected President of the AFL-CIO after John Sweeney's retirement, and he decided to stand up for immigrant workers' rights. During the 2016 United States presidential election, he attacked Republican Party candidate Donald Trump for his racism and endorsed Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton.